Courtesy: the artist and Australian Tapestry Workshop, Melbourne. Seth Damm/Neon Zinn, Respire, 2022. Single length of hand-dyed cotton rope bound with mercerized cotton yarn, 46 x 61cm. Courtesy: the artist and the Australian Tapestry Workshop, Melbourne.

Vessel, Cloth and Cloak features artists and designers creating functional textiles as vessels of culture, stories, and identity and explores works that traditionally carry, protect, contain and cover – and reinterprets them in a contemporary design context.

In an intersection of history, aesthetics and function, Melbourne fashion designers DNJ Paper utilise washi paper in the form of streetwear. Jacky Cheng presents the form of the traditional Chinese cloak applying handmade and hand dyed paper with sumi ink and kakishibu (persimmon tanin). Florence Jaukue Kamel’s bilums are patterned with cultural typography and mixed media vessels by ceramicist Robyn Phelan are both utilitarian objects and holders of meaning.

Wadawurrung artist Kait James uses razor sharp satire to subversively recreate and re-interpret Aboriginal calendar tea towels that disrupt outdated textile representations of Indigenous people and culture. In a feminist exploration of dress and adornment, couture and culture collide in intricate armour-like wearables by Isabel Avendano Hazbun. The meticulously hand-crafted rope body adornments by Seth Damm (Neon Zinn) are both wearable soft sculpture and designed to celebrate diverse bodies and voices.